Certain milder cases of murder, such as the American second-degree murder, are often covered by Totschlag in German legal terminology and do not then qualify as Mord.

An English phrase like “Peter's murder” is ambiguous as it can mean either “the murder that Peter committed” or “the murder by which Peter was killed”. In German, „Peters Mord” can only mean the former. The latter is expressed as „der Mord an Peter“ or by using the word Ermordung („Peters Ermordung”).